Sri Lanka expelled two Australian media rights activists for violating visa conditions, the information minister said Thursday, a day after they were detained while speaking with local colleagues.
Minister Keheliya Rambukwella said the two Australians - Jacqui Park and Jean Worthington - had come into the country as tourists but were engaging in "anti-government activism" in breach of their visa conditions. "We have no personal interest in the two individuals, but they have broken the visa conditions," the minister said. "We are treating them according to the law. That means they will be sent back."
The local rights group, the Free Media Movement (FMM), said the two women were being subjected to lengthy grilling by immigration and police criminal investigations department officials for a second day Thursday.
The pair from the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) were detained on Wednesday at a hotel in Colombo while speaking with colleagues from the FMM.
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